Tainted Light
by Malluchan
Summary: Ryuga is the pawn of an association called the Dark Nebula, but as things start to crumble around him, his illusion of a life gives way to reality. With the help of Harley - the daughter of the mastermind Doji himself - Ryuga can escape the clutches of evil once and for all, and get a second chance. But has Harley come in time? Can she save them both before it's too late?
1. Prologue

Harley walked into the cramped bedroom and heaved her schoolbag onto the bed with a sigh.

Her roommate, Pearl, was not back yet. Probably goofing off at the mall with her gaggle of ridiculous popular girls.

Harley had been here in Tokyo alone for 2 years, with only Pearl to keep her company. A normal 15-year-old would not have made it. But a 15-year-old, with a daddy who had...connections...

Well, that was another story.

A notification on her laptop's screen blinked steadfastly, demanding her attention. She walked over to the desk and collapsed in the awaiting chair.

It was a call request for video chat. She clicked it, accepting it.

After the connection was established, an all-too-familiar face presented the caller.

"Hello, my dear, I trust you're doing well?"

Her father.

"Doji", she growled.

"Now, now. I prefer if you call me 'father' or 'daddy', or some other modern word for the man responsible for your existence."

"How about DOJI?" she snarled in return.

"Oh- -is that the new name for father now?"

Doji lifted a glass of orange juice to his lips. Harley facepalmed inwardly.

"I can't believe you have to drink your orange juice from a champagne glass just to feel fancy, dad." GAH! IDIOT! She had slipped again. The habit of referring to him as her father remained annoyingly intact even after his betrayal.

Doji smiled. Small victories.

"What do you want, father?" Harley sighed.

"I just wanted to see how you and Pearl are getting along."

"Do you have to do the voice?" Harley referred to Doji's evil-nemesis, high and nasal voice with disdain.

Doji slipped into his regular voice. "Oh, very well."

"Can't you find me another roommate?"

"Just a moment, my dear." Doji pressed the intercom button beside his desk.

"Yes?...He's in the lobby?...WHAT DO YOU MEAN HE'S LETTING HIS DOG RUN LOOSE?...WELL RESTRAIN BOTH OF THEM IMMEDIATELY!"

Doji then returned his attention to Harley.

"I have some important business to attend to. Goodbye."

Harley hung up without another word.

* * *

Ok, so the first chapter was a little short! But I'm eager to post it now, second chapter scheduled for the next 2 weeks maximum!


	2. Chapter 2

The next few days hit Harley like a hurricane as the end-of-year tests snuck up on everyone. Pearl pretty much ignored her.

In his secret compound, Doji was dealing with Merci's sudden insecurity complex after being hacked. Maybe he'd made the robot a bit too intelligent. He also had to spend millions of dollars in repair work brought about by that sick Hagane kid.

Neither family member thought to attempt contact with the other; it would never have crossed Harley's mind, and if Doji had thought about it, he didn't show it.

But all good things come to an end.

Tests were over; Harley had barely passed.

Everything was repaired; Doji sat back in his office with a sigh of relief, not that he'd done any work himself.

Then he noticed the video chat window was open, and decided to check up on Harley.

* * *

Harley lay on the bed, head hanging over the edge, staring listlessly at the carpet. Pearl was gone again; so much for a roommate...she could at least be back before 10 more than half the time, Harley grumbled to herself.

A box of Milk Duds lay on the floor near the baseboard, about a foot away. Maybe there were some left.

She stretched out across the floor and her fingers touched cardboard. She almost had the box in her grasp when the video chat notification on her laptop started to ring. With a startled yelp she fell off the bed.

Glaring at the computer screen, she picked up the candy and sprawled backwards on the bed, hanging backwards with her hair brushing the floor, neglecting to answer her father.

Then the computer glitched and answered it automatically.

"Harley?" Her father's puzzled voice came from the screen.

"I don't wanna talk to you", she mumbled around a mouthful of caramel.

"Look, dear, I'm eating pizza!"

Harley bolted upright. If her oh-so-refined father was really eating pizza of all things, it was time to get him to a hospital.

Doji sat proudly at his overly lengthy dining table with a knife and fork, a vegetable pizza spread out before him, smiling happily. Harley puffed her breath out and fell back onto the bed.

"Eating pizza with a fork is so much more refined..."

"You're crazy."

"Ah, here we are." Doji's contented voice came through the speakers with the arrival of his next course.

"This is excellent dinner theater...you really should see it, darling!"

Harley grunted. "I said I don't wanna talk to you."

She could feel Doji's scowl from across the room. "You really should socialize more." But he was occupied with whatever was on the screen, and Harley preferred to keep it that way. She cut off connection when he wasn't looking.

* * *

Summer was finally here; school was over for a few months. Pearl was once again gone, probably at the pool with her friends.

Harley had fallen asleep on the floor in the middle of Robot Unicorn Attack 2. Her unicorn crashed while she was asleep.

The computer's beeping woke her up, and she was revived to the disconcerting voice of her father.

"...do you know why I hate cactuses?"

"Don't know, don't care", answered an obnoxious little voice from somewhere else in the room.

"Why do you hate cactuses, dad?" groaned Harley from the floor, then sat up to face the screen, dragging the laptop to the carpet with her.

Doji jumped, surprised at hearing her voice. "Harley? Where are you?"

"On your computer."

"Oh, the computer must've glitched." He sounded cross.

"So you really didn't want to talk to me?"

Her father changed the subject.

"What's on your face?" Harley lifted her hand up to her cheek.

"Oh. I fell asleep on the carpet."

"Don't you have a bed?" The obnoxious voice came again, and a spoiled-looking kid with loud yellow hair appeared at the bottom of the screen. Doji pushed him angrily. "Stop that."

"But does she?"

"Yes, of course she does, she-"

"Then why was she asleep on the floor?"

"Because-"

"Prove to me that she has a bed!" The connection cut off. Evidently the traffic-cone-hair kid had broken the computer.

Harley went back to sleep and woke with computer keys stuck on her face.


	3. Chapter 3

A month passed. Harley made a mental list of possible reasons why her father hadn't made contact.

1. He was busy; that was OK with Harley.

2. He still hadn't replaced his computer that the kid broke; this was also OK with Harley.

3. He had forgotten about her. Not OK.

4. He was dead or something. Also not OK.

5. He had decided she needed a life and that she really didn't want to talk to him. More than OK.

School was out. Summer was here. Harley was alone. And Pearl was...Pearl.

Nothing would change; nothing had changed since she was 9. Living practically alone with some 18-year-old, someone just barely into legal adulthood who didn't mind taking care of some latchkey kid for awhile, so long as said child didn't crash their social life.

Always being asked, "Where are your parents?" and accustomed to answering, "My daddy's on a business trip." Doji was always on a business trip. He had told her he was working to make Beyblade better. But he had lied, stolen a relic from Mount Hagane, and was working on taking over the world with the help of some ignorant fool who'd fallen prey to his evil plan. Daddy was a real-time nemesis.

* * *

Harley sprawled across the bed with a teddy bear and her phone, texting some random girl from school who was desperate enough to talk to Harley. She'd probably realize soon that Harley wasn't worth her time.

Beep. Beep. Beep. That annoying sound of a video chat request. Harley ignored it. She had already endured an excruciating video call with the annoying kid at least twice a day for the past week, and wasn't keen to repeat the experience. But the computer chose that moment to glitch itself into answering automatically and she looked up to come face to face with some random creep.

Harley yelled and so did the creep. Unfortunately her phone was on voice-activated texting and inexplicably translated to "Sausage marshmallow", sending to poor Amelia and probably confusing her.

The frozen boy staring back at her had some kind of tiara around his head, with flaming white hair emerging from his scalp. His eyes looked crazy and confused, and his teeth were sharpened to points.

No, Harley decided, creep did not begin to suffice.

"Who are you?" She demanded sullenly.

"I-I'm...who are you?"

"Hey, I asked first, buddy. And what are you doing in my dad's office with the lights off?"

"I was, uh, looking for something." And then his eyes sparked. "But it's none of YOUR business! You can't make me leave!"

"Listen, who are you, evil...thing?"

"My name is Ryuga", he answered importantly.

"Right. My father's evil accomplice. I must say, you fit the part quite nicely, being too creepy to pass for regular-creep-of-the-day."

"Hey, who are you calling creepy, kid!?"

"Oh, probably that person over here in the corner of my room who you can obviously see. YOU, duh!"

"Sarcasm isn't necessary. That was a rhetorical question."

"Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now get off dad's computer."

"I..." Ryuga straightened. "No."

"Yes."

"NO!"

"Well, what're you looking for, anyway?"

"I, uh, I'm not gonna tell ya. It's something really...creepy, and, uh, interesting. You wouldn't understand, you're too young."

"I'm 14."

"Oh." Ryuga's voice faltered as he realized she was the same age as she was. "Well...it's a secret."

"Whose secret?"

"Your dad's."

"Are you looking for his stash of chocolate?" Harley asked boredly. She'd learned the SECRET LOCATION from Annoying Person.

"WHAT? I, uh, no..." The guilt on his face was obvious.

"It's in the secret drawer in the back of the desk."

"I told you, I'm not looking for the chocolate!" Obvious reverence crept into the magic word. "I'm looking for, uh, for...oh, forget it."

He stooped to look in the drawer. "Thanks, kid", came his muffled voice from beneath the desk.

"Harley", she mumbled.

"Huh, what was that?"

"Nevermind."

Ryuga resurfaced with a candy bar clutched triumphantly in his hand, a bite already in his mouth. "So, where ya from, Harley?"

Great. Just like a guy. Say hi, he kills you. Give him chocolate, and he's your best friend.

"Tokyo."

"Oh, cool. The big city, huh?"

"Yeah. Whatever."

"From your voice, it's not all it's worked up to be."

"Nope."

"Join the dark side, we have interesting stuff."

"I prefer a slightly less criminal life, thank you."

"Why?"

"So I can sleep at night."

"I don't miss any sleep", he mumbled around the chocolate bar.

"That's because you're evil."

"It's fun. And nobody gets hurt. Yet."

"Yeah, YET. Let's see how you feel when my dad decides he's had enough of your skill and dumps you in the garbage with last week's spaghetti."

He laughed. "Last week's spaghetti. Ha."

"You'll sure be laughing when it's your roommate."

He paused for a second to swallow his candy. "You sure have a lot against guys who kinda want a little power, you know?"

"More like, WORLD DOMINATION."

"Same dif."

"Nuh-uh. A little power is like, governor of a city. What my dad's after, is world domination."

"Oh."

"Yeah."

He was silent suddenly.

"I hear footsteps", he hissed.

"Okay. Hide. Nice meeting you."

Harley hung up.


	4. Chapter 4

Harley came home on a sweltering June evening with her hair brutally straightened, chopped to chin length, and streaked blue. Permanently.

What did you expect? When your dad doesn't pay you any attention and he's never around to tell you what to do, you can't expect much more.

Suddenly her phone rang. She saw it was from a totally alien number; either it was Pearl with her customary 4 phones a month, or one of her friends demanding where she was. Harley answered it.

"WHAT."

"Well sorry for being alive."

Harley dropped the phone and hastily bent to retrieve it. The voice was frightening, unlike any she'd heard before.

"Who is this? Is this a prank or what!?" Harley was good at hiding fear.

"I don't know, who are you?"

"I asked first, buddy. IS THIS PEARL! PEARL, ARE YOU TRYING TO SCARE ME!?"

"Yeah, sure. This is Pearl. Wait, who's Pearl?"

"PEARL. Or is this MEGAN!?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"WHO ARE YOU! ANSWER ME NOW OR I WILL HANG UP THIS PHONE!"

"Okay, okay. It's Ryuga."

"WHAT!"

"Who's Megan?"

"WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME AND HOW DID YOU GET MY NUMBER, YOU CREEP?"

"Ease up, Harley." Ryuga sounded VERY irritated now.

"WHY ARE YOU CALLING ME! IT'S THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT!"

"It is not, it's barely eight."

"Well, that's always what people say on the phone."

"Whatever, will you just get on your video chat?"

"Why?"

"Because...your dad wants to talk to you."

"Oh. Okay."

Harley reluctantly switched on her computer. She didn't know what was worse: having her dad ignore her, or having him want to talk to her.

The screen showed one friend request. From some "Dragon Emperor" guy.

She spoke into the still-calling phone. "Why are you trying to send me a friend request?"

Silence on the other line. With a sigh, Harley accepted the request just so she could yell at the creepy guy. Almost immediately "Dragon Emperor" was calling. She pressed answer.

"Oh, hi."

"RYUGA. I thought you said my dad wanted to talk to me."

"Somebody's in a bad mood...and I lied."

"WHY?"

"It's a villain thing."

"Uh-huh. I don't know why I'm even talking to you." Harley's dad was evil and since then she'd become an evil-hater.

"I just called to say thank you..."

That was strange. He didn't seem like a nice person. At all.

"What for? All I did was yell at you. In the middle of the night."

"I mean for the chocolate. Also, don't think this means I'm nice or we're friends or anything. I just really like chocolate."

"Well, you're a boy. I mean, what did you expect?"

"That's a little bit mainstream, don't you think?"

Harley sighed. "What's the real reason you called me?"

"Okay, fine. Your dad -"

"Hid his chocolate again."

"Yes. Hey, you're good! Would you happen to know where it was?"

"Ask the annoying yellow kid."

"Yu?"

"No, not me. The one who's, like, 7."

"No, that's his name. Yu. Speaking of you, why is your hair all short and blue?"

"Why does he have anything to do with me?"

"No, I meant you as in 'you'."

"That makes no sense."

"Answer the question, already."

"Well, my dad's not around to tell me what to do, and he obviously doesn't care either way. Plus, I'm named after a motorcycle, what do you expect?"

"They're not gonna like that when you go back to school..."

"I'm not going back."

Ryuga stared back at Harley from the screen. "Are you allowed to do that?"

"Like I said, my dad doesn't care enough to make me go back."

"Harley, you can't quit school." Ryuga's voice was not as rough as it had been when they first met; something had changed.

"Why?"

"Pretty soon, your dad's not gonna be around to protect you anymore."

"How do you know?"

"Because this evil stuff is about to come crashing down around him."

Harley was indignant. "Listen, Ryuga, if he's going down, he's taking you with him. You're just a kid like me. If you know that's gonna happen, why don't you make a break for it?"

"Because...this is all I have. I've never had a home, I've never had a family. All I've got is this beyblade and the guy who brought me to it."

"So tell him he needs to snap out of it."

"I can't. The man doesn't listen to anybody."

Harley sighed. "Listen, this is what I was talking about the first night. You're only 14. You're not meant to be in this sort of position."

"If you'll promise not to quit school, I might just back out of this whole thing."

"Deal."

And so the two friends parted ways.

* * *

Ok, a few things I need to say.

First, this is not a pairing. This never was and never will be.

Second: Sorry Ryuga's a little OOC. I'm having trouble keeping him IC and getting the story going at once.

And third, I didn't mean for this chapter to come on so quickly; I can't think of anymore fillers, though. And this plot is full of holes.


	5. Chapter 5

The summer raced on. Harley was kept busy trying not to blow things up.

Pearl was never around. Doji was never around. She had no friends. She had no idea where Ryuga had went; she just hoped it was some place safe.

Finally one day Pearl decided that Harley existed, although only as a servant.

"HARLEY!"

"WHAT!"

The girls often communicated from opposite ends of the apartment.

"WE'RE GOING TO THE BEYBLADE TOURNAMENT AND YOU ARE COMING..."

Harley walked to Pearl's room.

"AUGH! Harley, you're not allowed in here!"

"Why have you suddenly decided I exist?"

"Cuz I Wuv woo...I wuv you widdle cheeks..."

"Doubtful."

"Okay, your dad said he'll give you a VIP seat. And if you get a VIP seat, I get a VIP seat."

"Ooh, they sound so delicious."

"Harley, that's not funny. Now come on."

"Listen, Pearl." Harley was fed up. She'd been fed up for the past 3 years of her life. "I'm not going just so you and your little friend can get a Very Important Seat. If I'm going, I'm sitting by myself in the regular seats. Away from you, and away from my dad."

Then Harley exited the room.

"Harley, wait! HARLEY!"

Harley slammed the door in answer.

Her skateboard was waiting for her in the hallway where it annoyed Pearl the most. She hopped on and didn't look back.

* * *

Harley was not like other girls.

Other girls ran away from home with tears running down their cheeks, and a hastily packed bag. They planned to get a job as a waitress at an all-night gas station and find their long lost mother.

Harley wanted to run away to wherever she would never have to see Tokyo again, to where she could be free. Maybe a forest.

And Harley did not cry.

Harley was enraged; Harley wanted to battle, to kill something, to feel victory. Something burned at her side and she glanced downwards.

It was her beyblade. Calling out to her. It needed to battle as much as she did, reflecting her feelings back at her like the mirror that it was.

Benzel Tigris was a left-rotating beyblade. It usually could down an opponent with the 40 razor-sharp blades on the fusion wheel, hidden beneath a telescoping sheath where nobody would suspect them. It had perfect aerodynamics with an eternal sharp performance tip and a bearing-driven spin track. Battling with Tigris would fulfil her urge to battle somebody; and then she would get on the road.

If she was going to that beyblade tournament, she would not have a first class ticket, nor watch from the stands and cheer on the village strong men, no. She would not even call out in triumph crushed between rows of people when there was only standing room left. She would be a part of it, she would be the one they would cheer for or stand back silently in awe.

She changed course and headed for the stadium.

* * *

Harley was admitted with no questions asked; it was an open-to-all tournament that consisted of 4 battles arranged at one time. As the battles wore on, the losing opponent would be eliminated until it came down to the top two.

Harley would be one of those two.

And so when she walked out onto the concrete of the overlit stadium, with the bright glare of the super-reflected sun shining back at her, she relished in the gasp of surprise she could imagine from the VIP booth opposite her, as she watched her father leap to his feet vehemently. She could even see Pearl, glaring daggers at her from the standing room at the railings.

She could see the one person she had never thought to meet.

It was Ryuga.

He stood at the bey-pit on the immediate diagonal from her own, squinting against the sun, his very outline defined by the harsh light filtering through the open ceiling.

She pulled her hat further down over her eyes and her coat tighter around herself. She didn't want him to know who she was just yet.

* * *

Opponent after opponent fell prey to the sharp catching claws of her predator, caught off guard by the left rotation and unexpected barbs. Battle after battle she won, one adversary after another thrown to the ground in defeat by the spirit of the Arctic tiger whose vengeance spares none.

By the time all but 8 of the bladers had retreated to the stands to cheer for their friends, Harley was tiring. But she could see Ryuga on the other side of the stadium, not a bead of sweat on his brow nor a hitch in his breath, relentless. By some stroke of bizarre fate they had not yet once met in battle. She preferred to keep it that way.

Clash. One opponent down.

Crash, this one was not so easy.

And then...

She could see the now-faint light of evening reflecting off of his teeth as he grinned menacingly at her, and for the first time that day, for the first time since meeting him, Harley felt afraid. His coat flapped like a wild thing in a sudden breeze and he seemed a creature of the shadow.

Ryuga stood before her, not recognizing her as of yet. Perhaps she would be the one to beat him, remaining anonymous until her time came. Harley felt sudden strength well up inside her from unknown reserves, a sudden burst of power meant to be used only towards getting to the top.

Harley was on fire.

She heard the click as L-Drago, one of the few other known left-rotating blades in the world, snapped into the launcher. Menacing as the hungry snap of teeth as a dragon breaks through flesh and bones. Tigris flew to the launcher just as readily. Tigris was not tired.

"Allllll right, and here we go...it's the last battle of the night folks, and we're off to a great start already! We all know Ryuga, don't we? But who is this anonymous blader who showed up at the last minute? He is definitely one of the strongest of the night...but can he beat Ryuga?"

Harley smiled beneath her cap at the drama of the DJ. She knew him well, and he possessed the charisma traditional of all DJs.

And he still thought she was a boy. He had all afternoon.

"3". The snarl came from Ryuga's throat like the animal growl of a thing possessed by something other than nature, and Harley shivered inside. But she did not show it.

"2." Her voice came out equally as strong, a challenge to take her on and throw her down, but she would always get back up.

"1." Their words united in a single gasp of air, both struggling to be stronger than the other, though the battle had not yet begun. She could feel adrenaline surging through her, charged by the just-risen moon and the challenge to bring down the strongest blader on earth.

"Let it...RIP!"

* * *

Sorry to leave you in suspense :)

Or maybe I'm not sorry.


	6. Chapter 6

Benzel and L-Drago coursed across the pit's walls, gliding easily on the surface worn smooth by countless bladers. Harley could almost feel the whisperings of battles past against her skin. She shivered slightly.

L-Drago changed course on a dime, catching Harley off guard, and for a moment Tigris and L-Drago stood locked in combat, metal screeching against metal, equally matched. Benzel absorbed the feelings of L-Drago's wielder, and she could feel only determination backed by some kind of animalic hunger that scared the breath out of her, and she staggered back.

Benzel faltered for a moment in its course and L-Drago bucked back, bringing Tigris flying to the edge of the stadium where Harley guided it to a narrow save and sagged back, breathless.

She circled Ryuga's beyblade warily now, watching and waiting for a moment when she could take Benzel's blades into effect and bring L-Drago off balance.

That moment never came. Ryuga struck first.

* * *

Ryuga could feel a strong power emanating off of this young boy. His tufty black hair protruded from under his cap and he never spoke; no, not once had Ryuga heard his voice that day nor seen him anywhere before. But something in the character radiating from him and the way he moved reminded him of someone he couldn't think of now.

The stranger's beyblade clashed with his own, and he could feel his feelings radiating from his beyblade. A feline variety, no doubt. The way the blade glided and balanced perfectly and held a low centre of gravity at all times gave him certainty.

All he could feel from this one was a strong curiosity and a boldness that made him madder still as he and L-Drago became less of master and blade and more of one entity. Rage built up inside him and all of a sudden the bey retreated to the edge of the stadium, circling him with a wide berth. Waiting. Watching.

That stranger boy would never have a chance.

* * *

Harley was surprised as Ryuga's beyblade came barrelling towards he at an unimaginable rate, fuelled by it's master's rage.

"You'll go down right here and now, boy", snarled Ryuga. Something in his tone warned her that he was no more fully human, but had taken on a part of his bey's own spirit.

She could hear a soft *clikclikclik* as the heels of her combat boots quaked against the concrete. He must've noticed, too. His speed increased. He was playing with her, scaring her until she had not the willpower left to try any longer.

It was sickening.

Furor and heartache burst forth from her; she'd thought he was different. She thought maybe this one had been led astray by her own father; she'd had hope. She'd trusted him.

But she could trust him no longer.

Harley went all for it, putting forth her rage and despair into a desperate all-out attack. Benzel's claws came out as it took advantage of the left rotation; its tip grated still sharp against the faint grooves that divided the stadium into quarters, backing it up. Ryuga's L-Drago very nearly plummeted from the edge of the stadium bumpers, but he regained his balance in a sudden moment and came charging back at her.

This time she was ready. In a sudden burst of power her Tigris found its bearing between the edges of the groove in the floor. As he came towards her at full speed, she could feel his rage, multiplied by 10. Benzel held strong.

"Hahahaha."

The best evil laugh she'd heard him do.

"You've done well to avoid defeat for so long, but dodging and avoiding aren't going to hold you up forever. Eventually you'll have to go somewhere else, and then there'll be nowhere to hide...I'll take you now so I don't have to wait so long."

Harley held her breath; here was the moment of truth. Could the power absorbing energy ring of L-Drago hold up against Benzel's claws? If so, for how long?

If not, how much would it hurt him? Why did it matter? Did she still feel an ounce of trust left in her heart even now?

If she did, it was gone in the next instant.

"Dark move..."

Dark Move. She had never heard those words before, and they very near brought her to her knees.

"DRAGON EMPEROR SOARING BITE STRIKE!"

This was not the Ryuga she knew.

A strange and unearthly light gathered at the palms of Ryuga's hands, coming together in a pure wall of energy before him. His coat fluttered behind him as a separate creature, and before the tainted light blinded her, she could have sworn she caught a glimpse of a dragon's eyes reflected where his own should be. Was his skin tinted with a hint of purple, or could it be only the light?

She would never know. In the next moment Benzel was blown from the stadium without a moment's defence as L-Drago soared up beneath the rim of its fusion wheel regardless of its unusually low stance, and threw it into the air where it fell back to earth with an ominous clang. She could see the tiny shards of metal fall from its claws and tip as it bounced against the pavement forlornly and she staggered back from the force of the attack.

All around her the concrete was ripped back from the earth and the bleachers were bent near in half, deserted save for a few perilous watchers. Pearl was not among them. Doji was.

Her cap fell to the ground beside her as she stood and ran to where Benzel lay, gathering its tiny chipped pieces into the palm of her hand. A tear fell to the pavement, staining it with a dark spot like the one on her heart caused by betrayal. It took her a moment to realise that it was her own.

"H-harley?"

Harley turned to see Ryuga standing just behind her at a loss for words. She stood stiffly as a silver-haired boy and the obnoxious yellow kid raced through the stadium doors.

"Ryuga, that was totally amazing!"

"You destroyed the stadium!" (Now guess who said what.)

"I-it was you the whole time...wasn't it..."

Ryuga seemed genuinely stunned. The yellow boy was jumping up and down, clinging to his jacket, and the grey-haired guy was standing off to the side looking sulky.

Harley took advantage of the moment to reach for her skateboard. Her feet settled into the deeply worn ridges in its centre and she pocketed the torn pieces of her bey, speeding down the sidewalk in a blind rush that eventually only led her home.

Home, the one place she had never wanted to see again, the one place she'd been running from all day. But she possessed not the will power to run again. She'd nowhere to go and no strength left.

And so Harley fell onto her bed and cried in her sleep, with the broken pieces of her bey in her pocket with the broken pieces of her very own heart.


	7. Chapter 7

So pumped about this story that I can't stop writing new chapters for it! :D

* * *

"BRRRRRING...BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRING..." The annoying alarm clock beside Harley's bed decided to work today, of all days.

She sat up groggily and glanced around the room. She was home. She'd not expected to see her own room ever again after yesterday. Nope, home was still here.

Then she realised it hadn't been her alarm clock. Her phone was chiming for her attention. Finally finished charging, it was showing at least 11 missed calls over the course of the night. All from the same number, one she didn't recognize.

Somebody had been calling her every hour of the night.

She picked up the phone, ready to dial back. Considered shielding her phone number, before realising that whoever had called her had her number already, so it would be useless.

Her fingers fumbled on the number pad, and she had to start over twice. Finally she got it punched in correctly and held the phone to her ear, unsure how to feel about the mysterious hourly phone calls.

The caller answered his phone immediately, eagerly. "Hello?"

She didn't answer.

"Hello?...hello...is this Harley?"

"Who are you?" Harley whispered.

"Harley, it's me, Ryuga."

"I know. But who...who are _you_?"

"Wh-what do you mean?"

"What are you? You're not human, Ryuga. I can tell. There's something...off about you."

"I don't know what you're talking about."

Ryuga sounded genuinely confused. Could it have been a mistake? Could the heated fury radiating off of L-Drago be the anger of the bey itself, and not its wielder?

But that didn't explain what she had seen last night. Ryuga had changed before her eyes from the chocolate-loving guy she knew to a creature of unimaginable power, and one not human nor animal. Simply creature.

She had made a huge mistake befriending him. Those who worked under her father were skilled in deception; she knew that now. He was filled with fury. He wasn't normal. She should have nothing to do with him. He had betrayed the picture of trust she'd seen that first day; now what lay beneath the surface was something she could never have fathomed.

"Harley?...Harley, are you OK?" Ryuga was growing concerned at her silence.

"Ryuga, what did you want to talk to me about?

"Oh, I wanted to tell you that I decided not to leave the Association after all. I think your dad got back on his feet and the plan won't be falling apart after all."

Harley was stunned. Then she reminded herself that this had probably always been his plan.

"You know, you're a lot shorter in real life. Are you sure you're not, like, 10 or something?"

Harley felt bitterness welling up inside her.

"Oh, pretending to be all innocent and normal, are you?"

"Wh-what?"

"You're not who you pretend to be, and you can't fool me any longer. You're not fooling anyone."

"Harley -"

"You were getting closer to me, so you could bring me down with you, is that it? Well, it's not going to work."

"Harley, listen to me. I have no idea what you're trying to say. I just..."

"I know what I saw last night", Harley sighed, her voice breaking on the last word. "And I can't...I just can't trust you anymore."

"What? Wait -"

"I...I need to go, Ryuga."

"Harley? Harley, wait -"

Harley put down the phone as tears streamed down her cheeks and the broken claws of her beyblade weighed heavy in her pocket, their sharp ends poking into her thigh through the thick denim of her jeans. She dashed the tears away spitefully. It was time to get moving.

Harley had never been the kind of girl to cry; you couldn't be, with a life like this. She pulled her fingers through her chopped off hair.

Get a grip, Harley. Get on with your life.

She set off into the city to find someone who could fix her beyblade. But there would never be anyone who could fix her trust.

* * *

Ryuga lay his phone down on the bedside table, dazed. He'd stayed up all night, trying to get hold of her, to tell her he was sorry for breaking her blade. But she'd never given him the chance to apologize.

Or maybe he'd never given himself a chance.

* * *

Harley couldn't find anything else to do that day. She was hardened, her heart inside of her turned to stone from betrayal. She would never trust anyone again. Not her father. Not Pearl. Not Ryuga. The only person you could trust was yourself. And maybe not even that.

Tigris lay somewhere in Tokyo on the counter of a backed-up Bey repair shop. The wheels of her skate board could carry her anywhere she wanted to go. But want as she might to leave Tokyo behind once and for all, Tigris was the anchor holding her back in the heart of the city. She couldn't leave her blade behind.

Harley lay in her bed that night, unable to sleep. She turned her repaired beyblade over and over in her hands, feeling the cool smooth metal beneath her fingertips.

Yes, smooth metal, coated by a rubber sheath. Like a human, it seemed innocent enough, with bumpers to protect it from the outside world; but underneath lay unimaginable power and a lethalness beyond understanding. It was those claws that came out in a person and made them impossible to trust.


	8. Chapter 8

Hi everyone, Harley is back.

* * *

Harley wandered through her life in a daze for the next few weeks. No battles. No sleep. No conversations. She didn't talk to Pearl so much as herself, when she lay in the small bed in the small room under the small fan whose motor was running hard just to keep it spinning, bogged down by the heat. She asked herself why, if her father's kingdom was really not crumbling and he could drink his orange juice from champagne glasses without batting an eye, why then had he stuck her in some run-down apartment in Tokyo?

Tonight was unbearable, so unbearable that Harley went into the living room with a chocolate bar at midnight, Pearl's chocolate bar from her secret stash, and her laptop. The fan in the living room worked way better than the one in her room.

Tonight was unbearable because it was her birthday, and nobody remembered. She figured Pearl owed her the chocolate.

The laptop was on already, open to a web page dedicated to videos. Right on the front page it said: "MOST EPIC BATTLE EVER! SCARY GUY!"

It was all over the web, she found, covering sites with ads and random results pulling it up. Harley had a soft spot for viral videos, so naturally, she pressed the play button.

The filming had cut right into the middle of a sentence.

" -ne, LET IT RIPPPPP!"

It was Ryuga on the screen. She stared in surprise for a moment and opted to keep watching, to see what would happen. Perhaps this would justify her theory of his inhumanity.

The battle progressed; the poor poor opponent did not seem to be doing well.

"DARK MOVE..." Oh, here it came.

"DRAGON EMPEROR SOARING mfffmfmf..." Whoever had been filming must've dropped their phone. It was quickly retrieved.

" -IKE!"

There it was. THERE IT WAS! Harley stopped the video on that one scene.

His face was not tainted purple from the bey's spirit glow, nor was that redeye from the camera. Those fangs were every bit as real as the wind that blew his hair back.

Self-created.

He looked like a dragon.

Harley's fingers flew across the keyboard: Cross-reference forbidden bey with hidden village, cross-reference with history and results.

Articles whirled past her eyes in a flurry of clicks.

"Tutankhamen...Greece...downfall..."

There it was.

"...a previously unknown force that binds it bey's spirit with that of its master, deforming the wielder and ultimately causing death and destruction of the people and location around it, finally ripping apart it's master's own heart and mind, claiming it as its own in a non-stop hunger for power and destruction until it destroys the one so foolish as to take on its power."

The computer screen swirled in front of her. She would've fainted if her cell phone has not jerked her back to reality.

"H-hello. This is Harley, can I help you in the middle of the night?"

"Harley?"

"Ryuga..."

Things started to whirl again. She shut her eyes.

"Harley, it's your birthday."

"How do you know that?" Her eyes snapped open.

"It's on your video chat profile, silly. Listen, you were acting weird a few weeks ago -"

"Oh my goodness. You have to see this."

"See what?"

In a shaking voice, Harley read the article. Her voice died on the last words.

Silence on the other line. And then...

"Harley? Is that...is that true?"

"That's what caused the fall of a thousand nations, Ryuga", she whispered. "That's what'll bring you down..."

She rubbed her eyes and skimmed the rest of the article.

"There is no way to reverse the effect once taken on, except to turn L-Drago's intent to the light and towards the pursuit of greater things, and to absorb positive energy rather than negative. Only then can one hope to turn away their own certain doom...but until such a strong hero comes, there is no doubt that history will continue to repeat itself time and time again..."

"Ryuga, you have to -"

"Darling, is that you?" Her father's voice on the phone.

"Oh, hey dad. Listen, where's Ryuga?"

"He isn't supposed to be on the phone right now. Go to bed, dear. Good night."

"But, listen, I need to talk to -"

Her own father. Had. HUNG UP ON HER.

* * *

Ryuga turned to Doji in the small bedroom.

"Hey, I've kind of been thinking, and Harley's helped me on this. I mean, maybe we shouldn't go on with this. If history's any lesson...I think I want to quit."

"Oh." Doji seemed unconcerned. "That's fine. You've been free to leave this whole time."

"I have?"

"Yes, of course. But we'll need L-Drago."

"No, I don't think you understand. This beyblade will only cause destruction and downfall, you can't give it to anyone else."

"I think we can."

"But -"

Well, who knew security had been installed in Ryuga's very bedroom?

Locked in the iron grip of Merci's security system, he was helpless as Doji calmly removed L-Drago from its sheath on his wrist and exited the room, leaving his guards to take care of the rest.


	9. Chapter 9

Harley pulled a Ryuga and started calling his cell phone every hour.

Every message she left got funnier and funnier.

"Hey, this is Harley...please pick up..."

"Hey. It's still me. Where are you?"

"Hi."

"Hello."

"Guess who THIS is. Yup, definitely I am Robin Hood."

"Hola. This is not the same girl who's been calling you every hour, no of course not, I would never be THAT annoying..."

"THIS IS ME ANNOYING YOU ON YOUR PHONE"

"Hi. It's the middle of the night. This is Harley. Still."

"PICK UP YOUR PHONE IT IS RINGING NOW!"

"HELLO, I WOULD LIKE A PIZZA. But seriously, this is the restaurant you ate at yesterday, you forgot your purse madam."

"I'm afraid you have the wrong number."

Harley didn't stop leaving messages for the next 3 days. That's 72 messages, you know.

Finally her father picked up. "Hello?"

"Dad, what are you doing on Ryuga's phone?"

"It was lying on the table in my office, dear."

"Why? Nevermind, where is he?"

"Ryuga is...occupied at the moment."

"Oh, with what? WAIT A MINUTE - he's not training, is he?" Panic crept into Harley's voice. If he kept on pushing L-Drago in the wrong direction, he might end up too far gone for help...

"Oh, no. He doesn't do that anymore."

"Well, where is he?"

"He's resting."

"Daddy, what is he doing? What are you having him do?"

"Oh. We...relieved him of his duties. He decided to back out of our little project."

"WAIT a minute. Dad, what does that mean? Is that evil-speak for something i don't know about?"

"No. He's being well taken care of."

"Let me talk to him."

"He doesn't want to be bothered right now. Besides, he's working on something else and is rather...tied up, so to speak."

"Did you TAKE HIM PRISONER?"

"No, of course not."

"DAD -"

"You know I don't like these cell phones you children love so much, I think I'm cutting off..."

Her dad hung up on her. Second time in a week. New record.

Harley tried to believe that Ryuga was all right and that her dad had been telling the truth. But all through the day, through lunch, dinner, and evening, she couldn't shake the nagging doubt that something was horribly wrong.

* * *

Alley walls and store fronts whizzed past in the corners of her vision as Harley pushed off around Tokyo, on that trusty skateboard of hers, trying to shake the feeling that something big was happening in Metal City.

Across the bridge, around the park, into the town centre. Up on the side of a skyscraper was that lovely jumbotron.

"...ge happenings expected, but at today's qualifying tournament, Ryuga did not show up!"

The confused face of the DJ loomed out at the people of Tokyo rather startlingly.

"No sir, there was no sign of the mysterious blader who seems to be stalking every tournament with the precision of a lion..."

The feeling of nagging dread consumed Harley, turning into a frightening certainty that something bad had happened to her friend.

Metal City was 50 miles outside of Tokyo. Without a car that was at least 5 hours, at about 4-5 minutes per mile on skateboard. With a backpack it could take even 6 hours. But she needed the backpack.

Skateboard wheels tended to wear out, you couldn't go that far non-stop without food or water, and an emergency kit was absolutely necessary. But if she started out now, this morning, she could be at Metal City about 3 o'clock. Not bad.

She whizzed home as fast as she could and threw together a backpack. 6 energy bars. 2 chocolate bars. A change of clothes (you never know). First-aid kit, skateboard maintenance kit. 3 Thermoses of water - 50 miles was a long way. Harley changed out her ripcord and hit the road.

It took 30 minutes to get out of Tokyo. 30 minutes while who-knew-what was happening. Harley was frustrated at the delay. Frustrated at the fact that her rich father hid her behind the façade of a city girl with not enough money to get a bus ticket to Tokyo and be there in less than 2 hours, who saved every penny under the insoles of her shoes.

Once outside Tokyo, the landscape gave way to leaves that were turning with the season and crispy grass that crept over the sides of the highway. The occasional car whizzed past, a Vespa, then a Cadillac. 6 worn-out pickup trucks. Then even a Thunderbird.

People's taste in cars. Really, they were only machines of the people who tried to look bigger than those around them, who looked down on the tattered girl on the side of the road with her skateboard, that girl who'd not been to school though it had started two months ago, regardless of a promise to a friend.

20 miles covered in about 2 hours. Then it started to rain. Of all the things in that first aid kit, no rain poncho. Harley kept on doggedly. But rain slows a skateboard down and saps your energy, sometimes faster than the sun will. Her clothes started to chafe against her skin and the road blurred in front of her, yet she kept on.

Headlights approached suddenly around the bend, slowed to a stop beside her. She squinted into the cab and saw a young man with tousled black hair, dark skin and a trustworthy face.

"What are you doing in the rain by yourself?"

"Trying to get to Metal City." Harley was defensive.

"I just came from there, it's about 20 minutes away by car. But on that thing it'll take you 3 hours...lots of hills and rain you know..."

The young man jabbered on until Harley interrupted. She hadn't got all night.

"Listen, I should get going. Thanks for the info."

"I could give you a ride, it's not too far to turn back."

Harley protested. But the young Mexican guy was annoyingly persistent.

Well, that's how Harley found herself on the front seat of a battered Toyota, wrapped in a rain poncho from the front door of the truck, while the young guy - whose name was Luis - jabbered on about how he'd have to get the truck rewashed, and how he had a job delivering oranges (but don't worry she wasn't bothering his deadline) and how he was going to join the Japanese Navy next fall if he passed the test.

She tuned him out. Now would be a good time to catch some sleep.

* * *

Well, if there was any doubt before, rest assured that the Mexican guy is indeed Luis, from Smiling Through a Monday.


	10. Chapter 10

As Harley woke, the last of the rain dispersed to a clear evening just outside Metal City.

"Hey, kid, it's getting late. You should hit a hotel or something."

"Thanks for the ride and all that."

"No problem. Keep the poncho", he added as she started to fumble with the straps. "You may need it in a while yet."

So the plastic-clad teenager lay her skateboard down on the worn roadside. As she was about to push off, Luis's mournful voice drifted down to her.

"I just wish I had something more to give you...here." Luis was holding out a wad of cash. "Go home, kid. You'll be better off there than anywhere else."

Harley was about to protest that she wasn't running away from home, until she realised she had no home to run from. She took the money and pushed off with the feeling that her heart was somehow missing something...

* * *

Harley traversed the unfamiliar streets of Metal City with Luis's farewell ringing in her ears: "If you ever need help, look for the Orange Guy."

_Look for the Orange Guy_. That was nice.

But now Harley had other manners to attend to. She didn't intend to wait any longer to make her way to the DNA building; getting her bearings wasn't difficult. You could see that ugly, jagged letter D from the edge of the city, rising above the other buildings, the same unmistakable logo from her father's ties and lapel. Unforgettable.

She headed towards the building through the centre of the city as dusk fell around her. With them the lights of Metal City sparked on, tiny stars of urban life, symbols of cosy families at home. Fathers returning from work and children running to meet them, life winding down as the moon came up.

As the doors of the DNA building came into view, the last rays of the sun sank below the horizon, giving way to the winking lights around the bridge she'd just come over.

According to the map of Metal City, acquired easily from the library, a water line ran directly beneath this building and a bey pit graced the back instead of gardens. She tramped around the building, all too aware of the cameras following her every move, their soft clicking sounds making no attempt to mask their presence.

Harley guessed that her father was either settling down for a late dinner or an early bedtime; normally Merci would be tracking every movement in the building and reporting unusual activity back to Doji. He was probably leaving his security team in charge at the moment, as nobody was usually daring enough to sneak in at night. At the front of the building was the domestic entrance that masked the building's sinister intents; at the left wing was a water hose long enough to reach to the front door and back to its holster twice flat.

Peering in the doors, Harley guessed that the stairwell door was protected by a hydraulic locking system, usually about 4 to 6 pipes long. Each hydraulic channel would release at the command through DNA scanning at the door, and judging by the advanced technology in the building itself, the hydraulic channels were probably nanorobotically bound. Every time one was cut, an electric current would pass through the nanobots, sealing in the liquid again. This also protected the channels from bursting.

But is there were no electric currents...

A plan began to form in Harley's head.

* * *

About 10 minutes later

* * *

_Fssssh..._

All the camera picked up was a grey blur, and then all was black.

Benzel Tigris returned to Harley's hand, hot and sharp. She shook off the pain from its claws nonchalantly and regarded the camera. As she suspected, a power line had run behind it, connecting to all the other cameras in the building. This one now lay mangled by sheer speed in the hedge around the building, the power line behind it severed cleanly in two.

Step 1 was complete. Now for step 2.

Harley threw a rubber ball through the public entrance; the desk clerk turned his head.

"Whoops", Harley called anxiously, hearing the clashes coming from the room the ball had bounced into. "I..TOTALLY did NOT mean to do that, could you possibly grab that for me?...I don't wanna mess anything up in there..."

"A little late for that." The desk clerk raced after the ball.

Thank goodness for mainstream dollar stores and their fist-sized rubber balls.

Harley crept inside as a voice came over the intercom; she retreated into a conveniently placed alcove and watched her chaos unfold.

"_Mr. Banks, this is security...all camera feed for the first floor has gone completely blank..."_

From a room startlingly nearby came a soft voice through a walkie-talkie. "Roger that, security, I'm checking it out as we speak."

The electric technician that Doji kept around hurried up the elevator at a touch of the thumb pad. Harley grabbed the water hose from outside and hurried in the direction he'd come.

Sure enough, behind a small and unsuspicious wooden door was the electricity room. She threw open every steel panel. This was where the maintenance for all the electricity in the building was conducted, the only room or area where even an inch of bare cable was exposed to human hands. She released the bend in the still-running hose and it spurted around the room.

Harley cringed in the middle as a spectacular show of blue and yellow and white sparked around her like lightning on the loose, and then all the power in the building went out.

No cameras. No lights. No computers.

Most importantly, no nanobot-conducting electrons.

Before the lights had gone out, Harley had practically memorized her surroundings. Hidden by a panel now opened just to the right and front of her, 6 water-filled tubes had lay, pulsing with the combined effort of billions of nanobots. She snatched the knife from her survival kit and slashed through the hydraulic channels in an easy stroke.

She heard a hisssss through the darkness as the hydraulic locking system released and more water pooled at her feet. She raced through the right-wing lobby the way she'd come and into the dark doorway behind which the stairs lay patiently, hurrying before Merci got the message to turn on the energency power stored day by day in the basement by the light of the sun.

Almost 10 seconds after she'd entered the stairwell, the hydraulic lock closed with a soft whooosh. But since Merci hadn't had the time to connect with her heat signature as she passed through the doors, she was left to traverse them in the darkness.

Step. Step. Step. Stop. She turned right, then left, through the twisting staircase hidden behind the walls. Nonstop, a girl on a mission.

It was a long, long way to the top.


	11. Chapter 11

Aaaand...

We're back.

* * *

Harley tramped up the stairs, up and up and up, she knew not for how long or which direction she faced. She didn't know how far she was or if she had only gone halfway.

After what seemed to be forever, a soft green glow began to illuminate the stair ahead of her. It grew increasingly brighter with each step. As she rounded yet another corner of the landing, she saw the source of the light.

A keypad. A keypad in the dark, waiting for a code to be punched in, glowing like the light at the end of the tunnel. The only thing that could stop her now was if that light were to be a train; that would be bad.

Letters and numbers surged out before her on the green pad beneath her fingertips, their brightness hurting her eyes after so long a time in darkness. What could the keycode be?

A secure passcode into a facility or profile consisted of 14 or more characters - a mixture of special, upper-case, lower-case, and numeric. This made the code nigh impossible to crack by non-programmed means and hard to bypass with a dictionary attack. Since Harley possessed neither software for a barrage or dictionary attack, she cancelled out those doubts and decided to log in based on what she knew about her father.

_World_domination_

It was a long shot. But it was possible. She keyed the passcode into the pad and held her breath whilst Merci's befuddled security system chewed and hummed.

After nearly 1 minute, something clicked inside the machine.

_Access granted_

Harley nearly laughed. Who would have expected her father to have such a cheesy passcode? Nobody. That's probably why he chose it; nobody but a child brainwashed with the notions of a mainstream cartoon villain could possibly hack into this system.

Harley took a deep breath as the hydraulic system slid open almost silently, and then stepped into the overwhelming brightness of the office in front of her.

The first thing she saw as her eyes adjusted was her father.

His eyes were hidden by the light reflecting off his glasses, his mouth half-open in surprise. 6 armed guards lined the edges of the room; of course after the power'd failed so suspiciously, Doji had been aware of an intruder on the premises.

"Harley? What are you doing here!? It's late, you should be asleep."

"Do you think that's really important right now?" Harley stepped forward to the desk behind which her father stood, his frame looming menacingly above her, sharp-angled by the tailored creases in his suit.

"I came to find out what happened to Ryuga."

"I told you, he's in a secure facility. He's perfectly safe."

"That's not fooling anyone." Even the dumbest of persons could see L-Drago's pulsing power from the case behind Doji. "If he was safe, L-Drago would be in his possession and he'd be far away from here by now. He'd have his cell phone and a safe place to stay."

"He's unharmed", her father said firmly. "Stop this nonsense and we'll find you an empty room to stay in for the night."

"NO, dad. I don't believe you. Bring me to him."

"I'm afraid he's in no position to be accepting visitors -"

"Then how can he be unharmed!? Give me a straight answer!" Harley whipped out her beyblade and shoved it into the launcher, aiming square at her father.

"I'm afraid you don't want to be doing that..."

"I have a right to demand a battle. By the rules our ancestors used since the beginning, you're required to accept a head-on challenge."

"Ah, yes..." Doji circled her lazily like a wolf toying with its dinner. "But I'm absolutely forbidden to battle you if you don't have a beyblade."

Suddenly the guards leapt forward and seized her wrists. Harley shrieked and dropped the launcher and beyblade onto the floor with a metallic clang.

"DAD! WHAT ARE YOU DOING!? Call them off!"

"My dear, I'm afraid you've gotten a bit too inquisitive over the past few months..."

"Dad -"

"And you know what we do to rebellious teenagers in this era. We send them to their rooms to think about it. Unfortunately..." Her father twirled one of his pens between his fingers placidly. "You don't have a room here. So you'll be going to the basement to play with your little friends..."

"What are you talking about?"

"And you won't be coming back until you can't possibly interfere any longer...Merci? Unlock the faculty lift so this girl can be taken to the basement."

"Oui, Master."

"And see to it that she is not harmed in the process." The elevator door came open with a soft *ding*. Harley made no attempt to struggle in her stunned state. As the elevator descended, she wondered what could be waiting for her at the bottom.

* * *

"Get your hands off me."

Harley indignantly pulled her wrists from the guards' hands. "I can walk by myself, thank you very much. NOT."

Even in a crisis like this one, Harley maintained her arrogant spunk and unbreakableness.

Until nobody was watching, that is.

Once the guards were gone, Harley cast around in the dark. Almost immediately her hands met with resistance; from what she could tell she was in a cell about 6 by 6 feet, two doors horizontal from each other, each locked with a gun-cabinet grade padlock. Unbreakable iron surrounded her on all sides, bars about 2 centimetres thick and 2 inches wide with grid spaces between them large enough to slip your hand through up to mid-forearm.

The only thing gracing the lonely armoured basement was a wooden prison bench and a broken lightbulb from the low ceiling. Harley was officially alone.

Her imagination populated the dark with glowing eyes and scurrying feet, thousands of rats in the otherwise immaculate facility. A larger pair, ominous yellow, glaring through the dark, a monster of some sort. She whimpered and reached to her belt, only that her beyblade wasn't there.

She gasped, certain she heard something throwing itself against the bars of the cell, imagined them bent inwards and too afraid to check. They would hold only for a few assaults longer and then she'd be at the mercy of the giant rats in the cellar and never be heard from again.

Footsteps stamped towards her, a million tiny feet in a wave towards her helpless figure.

And then something took hold of her wrist -


	12. Chapter 12

Harley screamed, a harsh sound that reverberated across the walls and bounced through the basement like that rubber ball from aeons ago.

Then cold air rushed around her and she shut her eyes...

* * *

"Harley." Harley groaned as a voice surged through her purple thoughts.

"Harleyyy..." Soft and sing-songy now. This was what happened in all the horror movies.

"HEY. WAKE UP." A painfully bright light pounded suddenly against her eyelids, turning her vision orange. She squealed and opened her eyes.

Only an intense white light stared back at her.

"For goodness sake! Turn that off, ya wanna blind me, is that it!?"

"Oh. Sorry." A click, and then the torch flickered off.

"Where am I?" Harley groaned and sat up. Typical of movie scenes, she realised; probably she would have a throbbing headache soon.

"You're still in the obsessively armoured basement", the sarcastic voiced man cut back.

"Ok, who on earth are you and why are YOU down here with the rats?"

"Rats?" He sounded amused. "I never got that memo."

Harley flicked her arm out fast and grabbed the torch from his hand. Aimed it at where his face should be, and flicked it on fast.

"Gah! 'Ey, quit that!"

"Ryuga!?"

The white-haired boy squinted into the torch's beam. "Why no, of course not, my name is Mildred." Even in jail, Ryuga had retained his criticism.

Harley quickly averted the torch beam. "So that's what my dad meant when he said you were 'otherwise occupied'."

"Oh he did now?"

"Yes. Flat-out liar. How long've you been down here?"

"I have no idea. How long has it been since I called you?"

"Three or four days."

"No way."

"Have they fed you?"

"Uh...yeah, I think. Just like REALLY bad-tasting soup or something."

"I bet they let that little yellow boy into the kitchen to make you lunch."

This earned an almost-laugh from Ryuga. "Heh. Wouldn't put it past them."

Harley sighed and sat back against the cold bars of the cell. "How did you get in here, anyway?"

"That one door, on the right side?...the lock is broken. It leads between the two enclosures."

Harley snorted. "Like we're llamas or something."

"No kidding."

"Where'd you get the torch?"

"It's yours. I ransacked your backpack. Hey, why's there a knife in there?"

"It was from the emergency kit...they let me keep all the stuff in my backpack. I guess they figured none of it could get us out of here."

"Well, maybe it can. We should look through it and make a plan."

"Okay, how about this: if I die of boredom, you can have all my chocolate, and make sure the rats don't eat my body."

She could almost hear him grimacing. "You're a very morbid kid."

Harley spread out the contents of the backpack on the floor. The emergency kit had a life raft, a knife, a slightly over-obsessive first-aid kit, instant food, a sleeping bag, and a screwdriver. Harley also had a couple of water bottles, some chocolate bars, and a few energy bars.

And a cell phone.

Harley gasped. "We can use this to call for help!"

"Okay, cool! Who can we call?"

Harley flipped through her contacts.

"Dad. Pearl. Annoying girl (megan). Ryuga. Principle. Squid."

"Who's squid?"

"My teacher."

"What about your Ryuga friend, we could call him."

Harley smacked him on the arm.

"Hey, ow. Is there wi-fi down here? I bet there's a phone book on-line."

Harley tried hacking into the weakened signal from upstairs, but in vain. Either her father's wi-fi password was more complex than the one for his office, or he'd realised the absurdity of _World_domination_ and reset everything.

"Maybe Merci will help us", Harley said suddenly. "Or does its system extend down here?"

"Yeah, it does. I could hear it turning on the emergency power."

"HEY! MERCI!"

A soft humming noise came from over to the left. Harley shone her torch beam in its direction; a small speaker box was set into the wall.

"Master Doji has granted me clearance to acknowledge your request."

"How nice. What's the wi-fi password?"

More humming. "I have been denied clearance to disclose zis information."

"Informeh...informech...infro...blargh." Harley glared at Ryuga as he tried to mimic Merci's accent.

"Can you at least ask somebody to come down here and talk to us?"

Whirrr...mmm.."Master Doji has ordered zat you are to remain solitary for ze time being."

"Ohrdehred..how do you do that thing?"

"What sing are jou speaking of?"

"Zat sing wiz jour accent."

"Ryuga, quit that. At least have someone bring us some food."

"I am afraid zat ze kitschain is no longer open at zis hour."

"Then give me the pizza place phone number."

"I have been denied clearance to Master Doji's intercom systaim. I believe zat he is trying to sleep."

"Seriously. The phone number. It's not like the pizza delivery guy can bust us out of here."

"Vell, I suppose zat as long as jou do not try to appeal to him I see no reason vy you should not sustain jourselves."

"Thanks." Merci relayed the number and Harley punched it into her phone.

"Harley, how are you going to pay?"

"Hey, if we can't get out of here, we'll just annoy them until they pay attention to us."

"Hello? Yes, is this the all night pizza place?...I would like 60 of everything, please. Oh yes, quite a large party, and I like to freeze them for later...yes, extra chilli sauce...and I would like a large order of bread sticks. No, you can just come in and put them all in the elevator. Yes, all of them, in all the elevators if they don't fit in just the one...thanks. You can bill it to Mr. Doji."

Harley hung up.

"Daddy's gonna have fun with his breakfast delivery in the morning. When he calls the lift up to his floor, he won't fit inside."

"You're a bad girl."

"I'm just that good."


	13. Chapter 13

Harley slept against the cold bars of the cell with Ryuga in the opposite side. She wandered through dreams restlessly, dreams of her dad and the yellow kid and the Orange Guy.

She woke to the sound of the door opening slightly and a tray being pushed in. "Have fun now, you little jailbirds!" It was the sound of the annoying boy.

"Hey, hold on just a minute. What are you doing down here?"

Ryuga was indignant.

"I'm bringing your food, Har-de-har."

"That's not my name, Yu. I need you to tell my dad something for me."

"I'm not your silly messenger pigeon, so have fun now, okay? Byyeee!"

"HOLD ON! I'll give you chocolate if you get me the key."

Yu pressed his big eyes through the bars.

"You have chocolate?"

"Yeah." Harley fanned out the 6 candy bars in the beam of Yu's torch. "Get me the key. Unlock this door. And all of this is yours."

"Uhh...I'm sorry, I don't think I can do that now. Your dad gives me ice cream. I like him."

"Yu, please?"

"Aww, the little goth girl is beggin for mercy. No can do. See ya now."

The basement door clanged shut behind him. "I had no idea he could drive such a hard bargain", Harley muttered softly.

"Me either." Ryuga poked at the bread on the plate. "I don't think we should eat this. It smells like fish."

"I don't either, if what you said is true then that kid can't cook."

"No kidding."

* * *

Ryuga slept. He couldn't tell if his eyes were opened or shut sometimes; all he could see was darkness.

Every dream grew increasingly stranger, a soft hollow song swirling around him and a soft light calling to him. Sometimes he could smell honey. Harley was eating a cereal bar and hadn't thought to share.

Sometimes she tried to wake him. But days without food, light, or proper sleep had taken their toll. It seemed like days that he slept, it could have been minutes. The headband he wore cut into his forehead when he rolled onto his side but he took no notice.

* * *

Harley watched Ryuga worriedly over the next few days. He seemed to be sick. He was running a high fever and sleeping almost constantly. Maybe it was from being separated from L-Drago; if such was the case then she'd be in his position in only a matter of time.

After a few hours on the 3rd day, she heard the basement door open with a click. A soft yellow torch beam danced around the room, and almost imperceptible footsteps thumped on the floor. Uncertain at first. Then a little more confident. And a familiar face framed by soft silver hair peered through the bars.

"Oh, you're the boy from the tournament."

"Same to you, kid, so this is where they put you?"

'"Yah. Who are you anyhow?"

"My name's Tsubasa. Man", he looked over at Ryuga, "He seems to be in bad shape."

"Yes. Do you know what Doji is planning? I'd like to know." Tsubasa seemed friendly enough for an agent of evil.

"He's giving L-Drago to a highly powered blader."

"I can't believe he pulled you into this."

Tsubasa cast his torch beam around the room again. "Hold on a sec." He punched something into a touch pad on Merci's basement control box, disabling camera and audio feed for the lowest level of the building.

"I actually work for the WBBA", he said softly, "And any blader persecuted by this organization is my responsibility to protect. Tell me what you know about L-Drago's surreal power, and I'll figure out a way to set you free."

Excited and hopeful, Harley relayed everything she'd witnessed of L-Drago's dark force and narrated what she could remember of the article.

"Thank you, that's good. Now I'm going to see if I can pick this lock." Tsubasa handed her the torch and rummaged in his pockets, coming up triumphantly with a bobby pin.

"You carry hair pins in your pocket?" Harley snickered.

"Don't judge me." Tsubasa tinkered with the lock for the better part of an hour and Harley watched in silence.

Finally the undercover agent slipped the hairpin back into his pocket and took the torch. "It's an Abloy model. I can't get into the workings. I'm going to sneak around for a few days and try to find the key; in the meantime I'll find you some decent food. Don't do anything idiotic. Don't talk to anyone. And try to keep Ryuga from overheating."

Harley could hear his softly whispered "Good luck" as he re-enabled the security system and disappeared into the shadows of the basement.

* * *

Ryuga tossed softly against the floor of the basement. Something was appearing in his dreams, the first tangible thins that he had seen so far. A scale, like that of a fish. A trail of them.


	14. Chapter 14

Harley woke as a soft light hit her face and a few oranges rolled into the basement, one with a note tied to it. Quiet footsteps retreated to her left, followed by the soft click of the door closing behind Tsubasa.

Oranges.

The note read: "Can't find the key. I think your dad lost it. I looked everywhere. Backup will arrive in a few days. Hang in there."

She hid the note away in her backpack and peeled an orange thoughtfully; the smell of the juice spurting off the inside reminded her of home, back when she lived with a girl named An-Jay, the last person she'd met who truly cared.

An-Jay had taken her all through the city and bought her oranges on a spring day. Then there had been that Saturday when the men came to take her away, and she'd never seen An-Jay again.

* * *

Ryuga stepped along the moonlit scale-littered path, certain he heard a soft scuttling ahead of him, like a small lizard or other reptile running along the path.

A small circle of trees greeted him around a small cul-de-sac, with no evidence of a world beyond it. He'd walked on the dark ground before, but now he was certain there was nothing but a dark abyss where his feet had once wandered.

The cul-de-sac was surreally lit with a single tall lamppost that rose high above his head, and whne he stood right underneath it it seemed to move.

* * *

The oranges were gone. It had been a day and Tsubasa had not returned. She hoped nothing had happened to him. She hope Tigris was okay.

She hoped Ryuga wasn't dying.

* * *

Beyond the trees he could hear the sound of the sea, the sound of waves hitting the shore. If only he could catch a glimpse of that great body of water, perhaps he could find a person and find out where he was.

* * *

He was basically her adopted brother, and as special to her as one too. She couldn't bear to be alone in the basement if he left.

* * *

Suddenly he felt a wind stirring the back of his hair, like the warm breath of something you knew all your life but had no idea of its existence...

He turned around...

* * *

Maybe once Tsubasa got them out of here and got Ryuga cured they would bolt, use the money Luis had given her, and stay off the grid until things died down.

* * *

A huge head reared towards him, not in a menacing fashion, but in a kind and gentle one, curious. The head of a huge dragon, a golden one, not like hid L-Drago. Not dark.

Trembling but not afraid, he reached out a hand and laid it on the dragon's nose. It made a sound like a sigh, it breath stirring his clothes. It hadn't been an ocean, but his dragon, here, waiting to be found. A good kind of dragon.

"L-Drago?"

L-Drago let out a soft horsey Whumph of breath, and Ryuga was certain he had seen it nod.

"Will you come back with me and help me get us out of here?"

The great creature nuzzled him in the chest, a soft beat of its wings sending a wind howling through the still air around them.

Ryuga hung on to the dragon's neck as it lifted its head up, pulling him high, high into the air - and then it beat its wings and lifted off -

* * *

Harley gasped as a column of light seared through the darkness suddenly, crashing with a reverberating howl through the bars an inch from her cheek, heading straight for Ryuga as he sat up. What was happening? Was it Tsubasa come to save them or a bullet shot from one of the DNA's lethal weapons?

All was clarified in a single erratic heartbeat as Ryuga cried out, "L-Drago!"


	15. Chapter 15

Ooooh. Early on a Monday morning. While my friends start school, I sit here alerting the randomest of people about SOPA and writing the randomest of stuff...

You guessed it, if you hadn't already by the weird stories and self-proclaimed brainfry. I'm homeschooled :D Free thinker.

So Tainted Light is almost over...this is about the last chapter besides the epilogue. But you'll b happy to know that I'm itching to start on the sequel for the trilogy, which is called Unwritten! The trilogy is "Change your fate." Guess where I got that. Thanks, Merida.

Unwritten will feature Zayne, and I don't need OCs, but sweet of you to ask.

* * *

Harley realised she had flattened herself against the opposite wall of the cell, wide-eyed and immobile as Ryuga staggered to his feet with the beyblade clutched in his hand. He was staring at it in wonder.

Harley turned her head to where the iron walls of the cell had busted through by power of the bey's sheer force. Through the opposite wall of the basement there was an opening identical in size and severity, through which could be seen the vacant office space they'd installed in the basement back when this building had belonged to a real corporation. Then a silver-framed head peered around the edge. Tsubasa.

"What did you just do!?"

Harley didn't move. She wasn't sure she could. In a single leap, Tsubasa cleared the jagged edge of the steaming hole and raced to the wall of the cell.

"I told you not to do anything dumb!"

Harley leapt forward, yelling at him through the gaping opening. "I DIDN'T DO ANYTHING!"

"Harley - "

"I have absolutely NO idea what just happened here. But somehow this cell is open, and I'm not waiting another minute!" Ryuga nodded behind her, still stunned at the blade in his hand.

Tsubasa sighed for a moment, wondering what he should do. In a second all the security in the building would be centred on this area. Merci was already spreading the alarm throughout the facility.

Unless...

Unless they weren't here when it happened.

Harley, used to a hard life as a skater girl spending as much time as possible away from home, had her backpack packed already and on her back. Ryuga broke out of his daze. "Come on, you two. We need to get you to the top floor. We have a remotely manned aircraft waiting to pick us up, sent by the Director."

"Good deal." "Right behind you."

"Great, we've got you covered." Harley whipped around as 7 more WBBA agents appeared at the opening in the office wall.

"When you said backup, you weren't kidding."

"Whatever, let's get out of here." They raced up the basement stairs.

All of a sudden, Harley stopped short, skidding across the linoleum. "Tigris! We can't leave without my bey, do you know where it is?"

"Harley -"

"NO."

Ryuga stepped forward. "You have to let her get it. You saw what happens when you're separated from your beyblade for such an amount of time."

Tsubasa glanced back at his backup, then over at Harley and Ryuga. "I'll go with her. Jason and Keith, you concentrate on getting the rest of them to the top."

"Yes, sir." Tsubasa slipped into the maintenance lift with Harley right behind him as Jason and Keith led the others to the staff elevator. They would be going straight to the top.

Tsubasa fiddled with the cable box in the lift, twisting something together and pulling others apart, working with all the skill he'd gained in the past years.

"So while the kids in the high schools hotwire each other's cars, you hotwire elevators?"

Tsubasa smiled grimly. "Basically." The lift lurched into action and he fell back against the cold railing, and Harley stumbled and grabbed hold of the railing at the other side.

Harley gazed anxiously at the ceiling as Tsubasa settled his thoughts. "So how did Ryuga get L-Drago back, anyway?"

She shook her head. "I don't know. It just suddenly crashed through the wall."

"Yeah, it nearly cut off Jason's head. Luckily he ducked in time."

The lift groaned to a stop. As the doors opened, Tsubasa pulled Harley to the right of the opening so that if anyone should be waiting for them on the office floor, they'd be out of sight.

But not a security guard remained.

"Okay. Get in, get your beyblade, and let's get out of here."

Harley darted towards the glass case behind which Tigris sat. She fiddled with the cover and hissed, "It's locked into place."

Tsubasa sprinted lightly to the case and shook it. "You're right."

"Of course I'm right, I'm not an idiot."

"This is not the time to argue." Tsubasa took a few steps back and flipped his beyblade into the launcher, ripping it out in a smooth motion as the string cord few out beside him. Eagle smashed into the glass case and shattered it in one blow.

Almost instantly alarms began to sound. Harley grabbed her beyblade and launcher and smiled widely.

Tsubasa pulled her back into the elevator as security began to flood in.

* * *

Ryuga whirled around as the maintenance lift rose to the top floor. Two or three unconscious security guards fell out of it and then Harley appeared behind them, racing out onto solid ground thankfully. Tsubasa stepped out behind her much more calmly. Far above their heads yet, the helicopter hovered, stirring up the clouds and sending vibrations down through the air.

That wasn't the only thing sending vibrations.

From down below them, something shuddered. And then Somebody raced up the stairs, somebody tall and with glasses and definitely, undoubtedly evil.

Doji. Followed by Yu Tendo, he bounded up the stairs to the roof like a madman. Harley seemed stunned by the arrival of her father.

"Stop! STOP RIGHT THERE! You won't leave this building with that beyblade!" He pointed menacingly at L-Drago.

Ryuga clicked it into the launcher and thrust it out before him. "Make me."

Doji flicked his own Dark Wolf into his launcher and aimed it straight for the boy. "Don't make me tell you again."

Harley slammed Tigris into its launcher pegs. "Put the bey down, dad!"

"That's not fair!" All turned to see Yu and his Libra, ready to defend Doji at a moment's notice.

"All right, then. Winner takes L-Drago." Ryuga had made his decision.

"Now hold on a second, we should just run for it!" Keith was acting like a loser. "He can't take it if we're in the sky."

Tsubasa didn't want to see a fight either. "Guys, we don't have time to -"

"3."

"Hey, wait a -"

"2."

"Harley - "

"1."

"HEEEY!"

"LET IT RIP!"

Tsubasa dove out of the way as 4 beyblades clashed on the rooftop. Almost immediately Benzel veered out, not a beyblade accustomed to standing still. Tigris and L-Drago regrouped at the edge of the helicopter pad, whose borders now represented the stadium by some unspoken law between bladers.

But, using Libra's solitary form as a ramp, Dark Wolf flew high into the sky. Jason could've sworn he heard the howl of a wolf. And then Doji's beyblade came crashing down between Tigris and L-Drago, scattering them to opposite sides of the stadium; Benzel's quick movements and immaculate balance allowed it to move quickly. But Ryuga was not so lucky.

Dark Wolf hit his beyblade full-force, with nothing to stand in its way.

"Look at you, dad", Harley said softly, "Taking by force the things you want, disregarding your daughter for a spinning top, and aiming your full destruction at what you covet most..."

Then Benzel, with its low centre of gravity, rushed towards Dark Wolf on the speed of a rubber tip and swept right beneath it. Above the stadium could be seen the ghostly form of a tiger, sweeping a wolf off its feet with its front paw.

Doji turned on Harley. "You stay out of the way!" Libra, who had been quietly circuiting the stadium this entire time, put on a rush of speed at a moment's notice and grazed Tigris in the spiked fusion wheel. Bad choice. The reversed blades, spinning with the speed of an F-22, ripped the outer coating off of Linra's winged spin track, showing jagged melted plastic.

Yu cried out in horror. Doji had had enough.

"If you refuse to give up the beyblade, then you'll never see the light of day again. It was your choice in the beginning. Now it's too late to turn back", he spat.

Harley cried out in horror now as her father threw his eyeglasses to the ground and cried out his special move.

"Dark Wolf! Darkness howling blazer!"

Harley staggered back from the edge of the landing pad as a dark pit began to open up. Benzel snapped to her hand in a self-brought up stadium out. Harley couldn't risk losing it again.

Libra rotated to the edge of the stadium.

But Ryuga remained frozen.

He stared into the centre of the dark abyss before him, seeing his worst nightmares play out. Seeing the destruction he'd caused in the past few months and the lives torn by his own selfish choices. He seemed to be falling suddenly, the pit of doom swallowing him in a heartbeat. Descending into the coldest depths of an ocean where no light could ever reach, no salvation ever even hoped for.

And then in the midst of it all he remembered how he had come to be here.

L-Drago. If not for L-Drago, he'd be still in that basement with a growing fever and a shrinking lifespan. That great dragon of light who had crawled from the shadows of its old form had come to his rescue before, and it could do it again.

"L-Drago", he cried up into the sky, the only pinprick of light he could see before him, steadily shrinking. And as he was sure that nothing could save him now, that the fate of the world rested in the hands of its most evil inhabitant, a searing fire blazed against his eyes and the great flaming scales of a dragon flashed before him in a blizzard of light. He could feel strong scales wrapping around him, going steadily up, up into the air - -

Until they broke the surface of the darkness and rose into the waning light of dawn.

Harley gasped as, on the back of a pearl-coloured dragon, her adopted brother flew into the sky, the last residue of her father's ultimate destruction flying off of him like rain. Doji himself was staring up at the sky with a horrified expression as, like a phoenix rising from the ashes, Ryuga reappeared.

And in Doji's stunned state, all it took was a single pound of pressure to knock him off the edge of the abyss he himself had created. With a cry, he plummeted into the dark from which nobody returns, the canyon of the greed and hunger for power that in the end pulls you in and brings you down. And as the hole closed up above his head, the last thing he saw was the helicopter alighting as the dragon of light faded and Ryuga staggered and fell...

* * *

...That evening found Harley and Ryuga on the side-way in front of the supermarket, feet in the gutter, thinking about everything that had happened.

They had promised to each other to stay together for now, since as siblings the most protection was to be found in the presence of the other. And as the tires of the red truck that belonged to the Orange Guy rolled to a stop inches in front of their tennis shoes, they were certain that as long as you had someone to depend on, nothing could harm you.

Luis leaned his head out the driver's seat window.

"Hey kid. Need a ride home?"


	16. Epilogue

The soft spring breeze blew through Ryuga's hair, giving him a reckless sensation of freedom as the truck whizzed through the trail-studded forest. Ryuga and Harley sprawled in the bed of Luis's pickup, watching the world go by and hanging on tightly to the sides of the truck.

7 months had gone past since the defeat of Doji; spring was here in April. Ryuga would turn 16 soon and get his driver's license. After a long court procedure, the judges finally decided that the kids had no living family members and handed over guardianship to Luis's mother, who was all too happy to help. They'd gotten lucky to have met such a loving family; Luis had a brother and two sisters, and since he would be leaving for the Navy soon, his mum had been planning to adopt anyhow.

Before that, they'd made countless journeys back and forth for court procedures and beyblade tournaments in the city to the small country house about 10 miles out, a place that now held all their belongings.

A few stray oranges rolled around at their feet and the smell of the forest in the spring made him dizzy. Harley grinned at him recklessly from the other side of the truck and he smiled back.

For a long time now, his old gold-trimmed coat had been folded neatly in a garment protector in the closet at Luis's house, slowly taking on dust and the smell of mothballs, with the dragon crown at the top of the closet. The days of his emperorship were over.

But he would always have one thing to remind him.

In the palm of his left hand was burned a mark that would remain forever - the mark of the now evolved Meteo L-Drago where it had landed after crashing through the wall, picking up speed and power until it carried enough force to brand its fusion wheel into something.

As the farmhouse came into view and the wheels of Luis's old truck finally slowed to a stop, Harley skipped the tailgate altogether and vaulted over the wall of the truck, landing barefooted on the hard-packed ground below. Running off to the barn to visit the llamas, as she always did at the end of the trip.

Ryuga grinned and leapt over his own side of the truck in one smooth motion, running behind her to find Luella and Namine in the llama pen. Though his feet had run this trail many times before and the same scenes passed him by each time, this was the one time where they'd stay at the farm for months on end. They had finally come home for good.


End file.
